Commonly used materials for the hard material tips includes rungsten carbide; Stellite etc.
It is a very well established practice to provide hard metal tips for circular and linear saw blades by mounting to the individual teeth of the blade tips which have been previously shaped so as generally to conform the the finally required shape to the tip.
In use the faces of the tips need to be accurately ground so as to produce a series of surfaces bevelled or otherwise which bear very carefully defined angular relationships one to the other.
In particular, the faces to be thus machined include the front face of the tip, i.e., that face which forms the leading face of the tip when a saw is in use; the top face of the tip which is the face most remote from the base of the tip and the two side faces.
In addition to the faces of the tip itself it is usually necessary to be able to machine the outermost peripheral part of the tooth itself this being commonly referred to as steel relief.
It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the machining of the tip front face must be such as not to damage the tooth gullet. The machining of the front faces is itself a relatively complex matter since the face may be required to slope downwardly and rearwardly, may required to be bevelled, grooved, with bevelling etc., differing from tip to tip.
In addition, it is important that the machining of the side faces does not unnecessarly remove material from the side faces of the tooth.
The machining of the top face of a tooth effectively sets the location of the tip cutting edge, this being the line interface between the top face and the front face.
In relation to these two faces it is important to bear in mind that according to the specific requirements for a saw blade that the top faces can be machined so that the cutting edge is effectively parallel to the axis of the blade, or is inclined so that each end of the cuting edge is higher than the other. Furthermore, it is also possible that the inclination of the cutting edge of successive tips should be oppositely inclined with respect to each other.
In addition, either or both the top and front faces can be bevelled. This bevelling can provide two or three sections to a face, and may Be symmetrical or asymmetrical as required.
Finally the machining of the side faces can involve dishing of these faces in such manner that the cutting edge ends appear to sweep outwards to distinct points
From the forgoing it will be appreciated that the machining of the tips provided upon for example, a circular saw blade is a very complicated process.